Chapter 508 Focus Issues in the T-Zi Volume

The distance was so far that Feng Ziying could not even see clearly the face of Emperor Yonglong. He could only retract his head and imitate others, quietly listening and meditating.

The court meeting is presided over by the chief minister of the cabinet. This is also a model inherited from the previous Ming Dynasty and gradually formed after decades of development in the Zhou Dynasty.

Ye Xianggao's original Mandarin, which had a strong Fujian accent, has changed a lot, and the court officials have become increasingly familiar with it. In fact, the Mandarin of Fang Congzhe and Li Tingji actually has a more obvious southern accent. This is also a very obvious The distinctive feature of southern scholars occupying a dominant position in the center of the Zhou Dynasty.

 Except for Qi Yongtai, the other three elders are all from Fujian and Nanzhi.

Two of the six ministers who are expected to become cabinet ministers, Li Sancai, minister of the Ministry of Industry, is from the north, but he has always been friendly with the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, and was even regarded as a traitor by some narrow-minded northern scholars.

Zhang Jingqiu was from Sichuan and was a relatively rare alternative. He was an individual independent of both the north and the south. However, because of his close relationship with the emperor, scholars on both sides of the country were somewhat alienated from him.

Wen left and Wu right, the cabinet is at the top, and the governor in charge of military and political affairs must be judged by his status. For example, the governor of Denglai, Wang Ziteng, and the governor of Xuanda, Niu Jizong, are both in Beijing and have to attend the court meeting, but they will be identified as military commanders. The identity is on the right, and if Chai Ke, the right minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of the three sides, is in Beijing, he will be on the left as a civil servant.

In short, on the right, there are a few fourth-grade or above military generals from the Fifth Army Governor's Office, several governors, and the Beijing camp. They are not many in number, much less than the civil servants on the opposite side.

  Generals with false titles do not go to the palace to discuss matters, and they do not even participate in the court meetings in the new year. They only participate in the New Year's Day meeting every year, but at that time thousands of ministers just go to see the situation, and I am afraid you may not even be able to see the emperor's face.

 This is the third court meeting after the spring break, on the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month.

"Your Majesty, Cui Jingrong, the Right Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and his party went out to Beijing to conduct inspections and investigations on Shandong, Nanzhi, Zhejiang, and Fujian. They have returned to Beijing to discuss the strategy of opening up sea debts. Since November last year, the DPRK and China have discussed this matter. The discussions have been going on for a long time, but in view of the fact that Cui Shilang and his delegation's inspection and investigation are relatively complicated and detailed, and the related economic and industrial operations are quite complex, I think that Cui Shilang can report this work to the emperor and the ministers in the court at the court meeting,..."

Ye Xianggao's words were cadenced and had some ancient charm. This was originally the norm, but for Feng Ziying, who was attending the court meeting for the first time, it felt like time and space were confused. Well, it was like in "The Ming Dynasty 1566" or "The Ming Dynasty" Listen to the echoes of history in these historical dramas or dramas.

As the expressionless face of Emperor Yonglong nodded slightly, the melodious voice of the chamberlain sounded like metal again: "Quickly, Cui Jingrong, the right servant of the Ministry of Finance, is here to play!"

Finally, I saw the elegant Cui Jingrong coming out calmly, holding a thick booklet in his hand. Feng Ziying, Wu Liangsi, Wei Guangwei, Fan Jingwen, and He Fengsheng spent their thoughts on the boat along the way. It took several days to come up with the first draft, and the details The modification and organization were naturally carried out by the staff from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works who were responsible for writing work.

As the censor, Sun Juxiang will not interrupt at this time. According to the rules, he has his own reporting channel and his own perspective of observation as the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to come up with his report.

Cui Jingrong did not report according to the route of this southern inspection tour. Instead, he analyzed and reported several major issues involved in the strategy of opening up the sea in order of importance or urgency.

There is no doubt that this is the most appropriate. This is not a routine inspection, but a targeted special inspection. In this way, it can quickly attract everyone's attention and attract everyone's attention.

"..., the shipbuilding industry under the rule of the Ministry of Industry has shrunk and rotted to the point of no further improvement. Taking Qingjiang Shipyard as an example, less than 30% of the registered craftsmen and workers are. Even if strict reorganization is carried out, it is estimated that half of the registered workers are already Very good results. The books in the shipyard are in chaos and there are many missing parts. I don’t know whether this is intentional or due to other reasons. From what I can see, there is a lot of rot in the large shipbuilding wood, such as the storage of glue, paint, ropes, etc. There is no structure, registration is chaotic,..."

Cui Jingrong had already been holding back his anger for a long time. He looked at the Qingjiang Shipyard and Longjiang Shipyard, and then went to see the private shipyard in Ningbo. The comparison was too big, which made him very angry. Naturally, he would not be polite at this time.

"The situation in Longjiang Shipyard is slightly better, but it is still unsightly. Most of the registered craftsmen have left to work in some private shipyards. Many of the registered craftsmen have passed away but are still registered, and those who were supposed to be added by their descendants are not at all. Supplements came in and there was complete chaos,…”

Cui Jingrong's words caused an uproar in the hall. Everyone knows that Cui Jingrong is a simple person and doesn't like ostentation. He also says one thing and another and two words. Basically, what he says will not be mixed with too much water. He speaks to this extent. , I'm afraid the situation is really bad.

Emperor Yonglong's face was also very ugly. In fact, before Cui Jingrong and the others returned to Beijing, they had already handed back some information on the situation. He had already been mentally prepared, but such a bad situation was still unexpected.

The ministers in the cabinet, the Six Ministries and even the Imperial Procuratorate also frowned deeply. They had heard about some of the situation a long time ago, but it was still hard to accept that it was so bad.

“I don’t know much about how the Nanjing Ministry of Industry manages the Qingjiang and Longjiang shipyards, nor do I know how the Nanjing Engineering Department and the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate supervise the Nanjing Ministry of Industry and the two shipyards. However, I heard that Qingjiang filed a lawsuit. Major cases keep popping up, but the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate conceals them and does not report them. The Nanjing Engineering Department seems to have no such agency and turns a blind eye to the situation. For the specific situation, Mr. Sun of the Metropolitan Procuratorate must have reported it to the Metropolitan Procuratorate. There is no need for me to talk too much, I believe there must be a more detailed explanation in Mr. Sun’s memorial..."

Cui Jingrong’s words were concise and clear, which not only allowed everyone in the palace to understand the terrible situation under the rule of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, but also explained the essence of the problem quietly.

"…Based on this, I believe that neither Qingjiang nor Longjiang shipyards have this capability at the moment regarding the establishment of shipyards in Denglai and the construction of the naval fleet. In contrast, I inspected two private shipyards in Ningbo - Morningside Although the scale of the shipyard and Taineng Shipyard is far smaller than that of the Qingjiang and Longjiang shipyards, their strict scheduling, standardized workmanship, and craftsmen’s production attitude and ability are far better than those of the Ministry of Industry Shipyard, and are far beyond the comparison of Qingjiang Longjiang Shipyard,… "

"..., so I believe that if we want to achieve the previously expected results in Denglai on schedule, I am afraid that the original idea of ​​relying on the Qingjiang Longjiang Shipyard is not feasible. If we want to achieve the goal, we must attract Jiangnan private shipyards. Merchants went to Denglai and Liaodong to set up shipyards. To achieve this goal, the court needed to comprehensively consider how to get these merchants to go voluntarily..."

Cui Jingrong's words immediately caused shock in the palace. Not only did the generals look ugly, but especially Denglai Governor Wang Ziteng could no longer restrain his anger.

He was not very willing to go to Denglai as governor before, but he also knew that his arms could not twist his thighs. The court would not let a military general serve as governor in one place for a long time and take charge of military and political power, and Niu Jizong had to leave the capital camp. , so the position of Governor Xuanda must be vacated, and he could only go to Denglai to serve as the newly established governor.

Fortunately, both the court and the emperor talked about the importance of Denglai and Liaonan, which is to build Denglai into the future support base of Liaodong, and the establishment of a naval fleet is inevitable. On the one hand, it is necessary to open up the connection between Liaonan and Denglai. Logistics line, on the other hand, Denglai will monopolize trade with North Korea and Japan in the future. It is precisely after seeing this that Wang Ziteng is willing to let Governor Xuan go to Denglai, but now it seems that all this has become a mirror. .

If you can't even build a shipyard, how can you talk about building a naval fleet to control the entire sea area to Liaonan, North Korea and Japan? Without a naval fleet, Governor Denglai is almost no different from a general military officer. What is the significance of Governor Denglai?

Similarly, if the waterway between Denglai and Liaonan cannot be unblocked, logistics supplies, especially the transportation of grain and grass, will have to be transported by land, just like now.

After the Jianzhou Jurchens annexed the Wula Huifa and other tribes, their military fronts have been directed towards western Liaoning, and the Mongolian tribes in western Liaoning, such as Horqin, have been quarreling with the Jianzhou Jurchens. Not only will land transportation face a great threat, but also The cost of transportation was so high that the household department of Dazhou was miserable, so it was urgent to open waterway transportation from Denglai to southern Liaoning.

This is what the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the military generals tried their best to ensure. It was also the most important condition for the original plan to open the sea, otherwise neither the army nor the northern scholars would agree.

Everyone in the palace could feel the dissatisfaction from the military generals from the west. Similarly, the leaders of the northern scholars such as Qi Yongtai, Qiao Yingjia, Zheng Jizhi, Wang Yongguang, etc. also had angry faces, even those who had always been close to the Jiangnan scholars. Li Sancai also frowned and remained silent.

This first article of the compromise has now gone wrong. If this is not possible, how can we satisfy the northern scholars and military generals in the DPRK and the Central Government? Even the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs will not agree.

"Cui Qing, if this is the case, how can we get these Jiangnan merchants to go to Denglai to set up shipyards? What about the Ministry of Industry Shipyard?"

Emperor Yonglong also knew that this issue was likely to spark another controversy, and the court would inevitably have to make some concessions and compromises, as well as take some actions. However, he had to start a showdown, otherwise many subsequent things would not be possible. advanced.

“Your Majesty, Feng Keng, editor of the Hanlin Academy, once made a suggestion to me, but the debate was huge and I didn’t dare to make the decision…”

 (End of this chapter)